NFL contract expert weighs in on Josh Jacobs, Saquon Barkley situation

When Saquon Barkley and the New York Giants ended a contract stalemate early on Tuesday morning by agreeing to a new one-year contract, all eyes turned to Josh Jacobs and the Las Vegas Raiders.

Until Barkley’s surprise agreement, he and Jacobs were in the same exact contract situation as franchise-tagged running backs. We reached out to former NFL agent and contract expert Joel Corry to gauge whether the compromise between Barkley and the Giants will spark a similar agreement between Jacobs and the Raiders. Jacobs is staying away from training camp — the first practice is Wednesday — and he reportedly left Las Vegas on Monday with no plans to return anytime soon.

Corry said he doesn’t necessarily think what happened with Barkley will spark a quick union between Jacobs and the Raiders. Although, he said he expects the Raiders to reach out to Jacobs to see if he’s interested in doing an incentive-based one-year deal like Barkley is doing.

“Jacobs has different gripes,” Corry said. “Barkley had been talking about a deal for a long time. It should have gotten done. It doesn’t seem like Jacobs and the Raiders were that close. The brass comes from the Patriots and they never valued running backs. He was the engine of that team last year, had a career year and the owner [Mark Davis] sung his praises and he still doesn’t get paid. I understand why he high-tailed it out of town. He could be out a while.”

Corry thinks Jacobs will likely return for the regular season because he hasn’t made enough money in his career yet to not take the $10.1 million franchise tag deal. He said he could take a similar deal as Barkley eventually did if it can get him some more money.

While the Barkley deal seems to favor the team to many around the NFL. Corry said that at least the player has a chance to make more money this year. However, he doesn’t like the incentive thresholds, based on the playoffs and Barkley needing to have a career year. Barkley’s yardage incentive is 1,350 rushing yards. He’s never hit that before,

If Jacobs gets incentives, they could be different based him and the team’s situation. Jacobs led the NFL with 1,653 yards rushing in 2022. So, his numbers would likely be higher.

Corry said he thinks Jacobs will likely play this year and then gets franchised tagged again in 2024 if he has another good season. So, this saga may just be getting started.